Eclipse
by VermilionFeathers
Summary: Centuries of waiting had led to this moment. The moment they would finally meet their Nexus. They didn't expect it to happen in a dark, dank cell in a basement somewhere, but hey, they're pretty easygoing. Of course, it wouldn't be their Nexus if there wasn't trouble afoot. Jack/OC/Ianto


Cardiff was not what they expected.

They inhaled, the damp sticking in their lungs as they breathed in the misty air.

A city powered by combustion, and yet the atmosphere here was so wet, the rain nearly constant. It was a wonder anything functioned properly here.

The concrete clicked under their heels, the hard substance unforgiving beneath their feet. They grimaced, the sensation uncomfortable. How the indigenous peoples of this region walked on this stuff every day of their lives without problems they didn't know. They were more used to walking on shifting sand and soft earth than this unyielding stone. And these foot coverings! Clearly these were designed to inhibit the reproductive half of this species from running away, rather than for any functional purpose. Alas, they lamented to themselves, if they wanted to blend in with the humans, then these raised foot coverings had to be worn. And seventh moon knows what could be on this concrete, besides. They didn't want to catch a disease. Humans could be downright filthy sometimes.

They maintained their steady pace down the sidewalk (you can say many things about humans, but they did not have the most creative naming schemes), glancing here and there occasionally, hoping to spot what they had come here for. It had been a long journey here, taking them much longer than anticipated due to a run in with some Judoon and a particularly mischievous Grask, and they were starting to get a little impatient. They had been waiting centuries for this one moment, after all, longer than most ever would. This is what happens when the moons align you with someone who has an overcomplicated time stream, they mused to themselves.

Regardless, they knew they would find their nexus soon. Cardiff was important, after all.

They continued on their trek, coming to a halt by the tower at the end of the square. Roald Dahl's Plass, the locals had called it. Where a very iconic tower stood, water sluicing down. They knew it from their glimpses, and they knew their nexus would not be far from it. Reaching the end of the plaza, they came to a halt in front of the raised sidewalk, gravel crunching underneath their shoes.

A smile slowly crawled across their face. It was only a matter of time.

* * *

They scowled, rain pouring off their frame in buckets as the skies unleashed their discontent above them. It was times like this that made them wish their Nexus was from somewhere else; somewhere warm, and dry, where there wasn't a risk of drowning on dry land. It had been three days since they had parked themselves in front of the water tower (although at this point the term water tower was moot, with all the rain it was just a regular tower), and they still had not found their Nexus.

If the moons were going to make them wait another four days just to make it a sacred seven they were going to scream. Which, admittedly, they had never done before, and honestly they might just do it anyway to see what it's like. It looked weird, slightly intimidating. Then again, humans as a species were weird, with their multi-purpose mouths. Why did it need to have more than one function? Seriously?

They were getting ahead of themselves again. Perhaps searching mentally would garner better results than standing here in the sheets of water falling from the sky. After all, not many humans were out at the moment, and if their Nexus frequented this area as much as their glimpses said they did, then chances were giving it a quick look might lead them to their Nexus relatively quickly. It was either that or risk their internal organs filling with liquid, which did not sound appealing at all.

They touched the choker (really, human naming schemes were terrible) sitting at their throat, tapping the metal circle in the centre. The inhibitor dropped, allowing their mind a freedom they hadn't been able to experience since they had landed on this primitive piece of rock. (Alright, they knew that wasn't fair to say, but the physical act of speech to a being that had never had to communicate in such ways seemed positively backwards.)

They drifted in the sensation for a moment, mental capabilities unrestrained, and had to resist the urge to giggle. They were sure they did not appear, as humans put it, mentally stable at the moment (and what a phrase that was!) and did not want to scare off the locals any more than they already did. Searching for a mind nearby, they mentally stretched, feeling a few thoughts wander into their space, as it were.

_Wonder if we should order pizza when we're done here? _

_Gotta approach slowly. Don't want to startle it._

_Stupid weather, stupid Cardiff. Can't see a bloody thing!_

_Careful, careful._

Ah, they smiled. Guess they didn't need to go looking for their Nexus after all.

The last thing they saw before all went black was the flash of a dark blue coat.

* * *

"So, now that we've captured the weird girl that was standing directly above the Hub for three days straight, what do we do now?"

Suzie looked at him, shrugging as she typed at her desk. "I dunno. Up to Jack, really."

Owen gave her look. "Is no one else wondering how she managed to go three days without food or water, just standing there? She was like a bloody statue!"

Suzie, of course, brushed him off. "She's probably not human, Owen. Simple as that."

He bristled. "And I don't suppose the fact that an alien standing directly above our secret base doesn't warrant attention either?"

A sigh escaped Suzie before she fully turned to face him. "It's currently locked up, in a secure cell, where it can't do anything but pace. Besides, Jack's interrogating it now. I'm sure it'll be fine."

Despite those reassuring words, Owen wasn't convinced. He had a bad feeling about this.

* * *

The funny thing about their species was that when regaining consciousness, they did not have the urge to open their eyes. As they were very psychically based species, the first thing they did was reach out to others around them and re-establish themselves. Of course, on an alien planet with no psychically inclined persons around, this just gave off the impression of deep sleep, or a coma. Normally, it would not have taken as long, but then again, they had not exactly been taking care of themselves on this little trip to Earth. While their species did not necessarily sleep like humans did, they did require periods of mental rest. Unfortunately, an inhibitor didn't quite count.

So this meant that they were stuck taking their time to re-acclimatize themselves, as there wasn't exactly anyone to help speed the process along. The worst thing was, their Nexus was right there! They could feel them, standing not ten feet away! (Why feet were used to measure something, when all feet are not the same size, they did not know. Yet another weird thing humans did)

This was the closest they had ever been to their Nexus, and somehow it was more torturous then being an entire universe away.

Maybe they could try reaching out, see if that would speed things along. They were never exactly the most patient person around, and that impatient streak was rearing its head at the moment. But who could they reach out to? Perhaps their Nexus? They were more psychically inclined then the other humans around (comes with being destined to be with one of their species) but reaching out without explicit permission was considered rude by literally every other culture except their own. Consent and all that was very important. Didn't want to start the relationship off on the wrong foot, after all.

But who did that leave? There didn't seem to be anyone close enough that would work….

Oh, they realized. They had seemed to have been a bit hasty in that judgement. There was someone approaching right now that would work perfectly. (Well, as perfectly as a human could, anyways).

* * *

It had been an interesting week for Toshiko Sato. To start it off, her water line broke, meaning she was currently without until the city could fix it; her power was also out due to a bad storm that had hit the night before, and she wouldn't be getting that back til God knows when; and to top it all off, Weevils had been popping up left right and centre, not allowing for any rest for the team. She had barely found the time to find a hotel, which thankfully had both water and power available, that was close enough to work, let alone actually make her way to it. And if that wasn't enough, they had found strange power fluctuations somewhere in the Leckwith area, just outside of Cardiff, from a couple weeks ago, that had somehow gone unnoticed. And then, the stalker.

The discovery of a potential threat on Torchwood's very doorstep had been a new one. Usually they went searching for threats, instead of the threats seemingly searching for them. And it had been searching. Jack had ordered a search on all CCTV footage found featuring the thing that had been standing at their back door for the past three days, and it most certainly had to be a thing. What human would go without food or water for three days without moving? Even when the weather had turned for the worse, it hadn't taken shelter. It had just stood there, eyes closed, waiting for something.

Tosh had, of course, done a full facial recognition search of this person, maybe find out how long it had been here. The answer was not very long at all. And to top it all off, it had first been sighted in the Leckwith area, not even two weeks ago. And in their line of work, coincidences were rare.

The thing that turned her stomach the most, was that whatever it was, it certainly appeared human, if a little odd. It had darker skin, which in itself, was not that odd at all. Humanity was a very diverse bunch. No, the odd thing was instead of the usual brown or blue eyes that most people had, its eyes were pitch black.

All the footage had shown was it stopping people, and seemingly asking for directions, and when night fell it disappeared, at least until it had arrived at the Plass. While not exactly the most incriminating, she had enough evidence to warrant a search out in the fields of Leckwith. Which they were most likely going to do before this had happened anyway, but now they at least had a slight idea what they were looking for.

With that, Tosh marched herself into the Hub, loaded with pizza and distracted by her thoughts on their new prisoner. She was starting to develop a bit of a headache, although that may have been the stress she'd been under for the past week. Shrugging off the steadily increasing throbbing, Tosh sat herself down at her station, ready to get to work before her colleagues swarmed the pizza. Before her fingers could even touch her keyboard, slice beside her, her eyes began to close. In less than a minute, Toshiko Sato fell asleep, just as their prisoner began to wake.

* * *

Their eyes flashed open, shooting upright as they snapped out of their so-called sleep. They winced, fingers coming to their temples when pain shot through their skull. Ah yes, the disadvantages of having to use such a backwards species to come to. Things ended up either being too abrupt or taking entirely too long. Unfortunately for one Toshiko Sato (and wasn't having two names funny?), they did not exactly have time in spades, and so pushed a little too hard when rebooting themselves, so to speak, leading to pain on both sides.

"Sleeping beauty is finally awake I see. Care to explain just exactly what you were doing standing outside our secret base?"

Ah, they mused, eyes fluttering shut, that must be them. Their Nexus. Taking a moment to savor the first words they had ever heard their Moons destined partner speak, they completely missed the fact that they were expected to reply.

A loud bang startled them out of the trance they had momentarily gone into, snapping into a rigid stance. It was then they finally laid eyes on him.

Oh and was he glorious. All anger and dark eyes, a fierce cloak of protectiveness hovering over him like a cloud. Of course, the anger being directed at them wasn't the best thing, but they would work on that.

"Who are you, and what do you want," he growled, fist lying against the glass that made up the door to their holding cell.

A smile bloomed on their face, caught up in the vision that their Nexus made.

"Don't make me ask again," he seethed, fire in his eyes.

They merely shrugged, rearranging their limbs into a standing position. "I am yours. And you are mine," they said simply, leaning against the brick wall.

He blinked, confusion darting across his expression before returning to his hard mask. "What is that supposed to mean?"

They nearly giggled. Communication this way was so terribly backwards, but it had its charms. One of them was the expressions people would make when they didn't understand. Very adorable.

"I apologize, I am not wholly used to communicating in such a manner. My species is very psychically advanced compared to humans. Well, humans in this century at least. Speaking with mouths is a little… different. I forget you do not just, well, _know_ as I do."

He leaned back from the glass, mouth downturned as he kept an eye on them, arms crossing in front of his chest. "And what species are you, exactly?"

They sighed. Humans and their need for labels. "I am not aware of all the names humans have given us over the years. I think the one used the most would be Lunae Homines, if I'm not mistaken."

He continued to eye them. "Never heard of them."

This was not entirely surprising. Not many did, even the higher species throughout the universe weren't fully aware of their species. Perks of living outside of it, really. That was really an explanation for another day though, when their Nexus had settled into a less deadly state of mind.

"I didn't really expect you to," they confessed. "Regardless, I am not here to do any of you any harm. If I was, you'd all be bleeding out of most of your orifices right about now."

An eyebrow raised. "Was that a threat?"

They rolled their eyes. Humans. What was it with the dominance displays and the misinterpretations? Could they not just calm their hormones down for a cycle? Moons above, it had been less then ten minutes and they were already willing to just force the bond and get this over with.

"I don't need to threaten you. My species is very telepathic. I could have made your brains seize the moment you surrounded me."

"But you didn't."

They nodded. "But I didn't."

His stance relaxed a bit, eyes still focused on every movement they made. "That still doesn't answer my question. Who are you, and what do you want?"

Moonslight above, this was taking forever. Was a good impression simply worth it at this point? Surely, after they made the connection, he would understand. Was there a need to continue with the whole speaking with food holes and the body language and the hostility? Would it not be easier to just reach out and touch his mind with theirs? They exhaled, mentally restraining themselves. While it would be so much easier to just show him who they were, what they were meant to be, that wasn't how it should be. They had been waiting so long, spending centuries dreaming of their Nexus, catching flashes here and there, wondering what it would feel like to finally complete themselves. If they rushed it, they would only end up hurting their partner, and that's not what they wanted at all. They had to do this the long way around.

"I am Mi'lan, born under the Seventh Moon of Prima Luce, and I am here for you, Captain Jack Harkness."

They reached out to him then, calling out to his mind to hear them as he increased the distance between them, uneasiness radiating off of him in waves. If only they could get him to understand!

Mi'lan hummed in their throat. "I think we should have the rest of this conversation away from prying eyes, don't you?" they asked, trying to send out soothing emotions towards him, eyeing the cameras. They did not exactly want what they needed to say being recorded, especially considering where they were. They were very aware of the hostility many had to those considered different, and if they didn't check a bunch of boxes on that list already, they'd consume one of these terrible shoes. Humans and their violent tendencies were always something one could count on, after all, and they really didn't feel like having sharp objects thrust into them today. Bodily fluids were supposed to stay on the inside.

They could sense the curiosity as well as the caution hovering in their Captain's mind, and wasn't that a sentence! Their Captain! Well, whether he was an actual captain was rather unclear, but not currently important. What was more important was finally explaining just who they were to their Nexus, their oblivious Nexus. The moment was so close, they could almost feel it.

And of course, that was when all hell broke loose.


End file.
